August, 2021

• 18 August

  Walmart’s slowing e-comm, margin weigh as sales beat

  

  Bloomberg Walmart Inc’s pandemic-driven gains in e-commerce slowed last quarter and profit margin fell, raising questions about the retailer’s ability to maintain momentum even after it topped Wall Street’s sales expectations. The company’s US online sales rose 6% in the second quarter, the company said in a statement. That was down from earlier in the pandemic, when soaring e-commerce demand ...

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• 18 August

  Mask mandate for US travellers extended

  

  Bloomberg US transportation and health agencies are extending the mask mandate for air passengers and other travellers until mid-January as the Delta variant of Covid-19 continues to surge. The sometimes controversial requirement for people to cover their faces on public forms of transportation had been set to expire on September 13. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said in an emailed ...

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• 18 August

  Fall of Kabul: Afghan allies of US fear the worst

  

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s rapid pullout from Afghanistan has left thousands of Afghans who worked as translators and guides for the US military in a desperate race to escape the country to avoid being targeted by the Taliban. Amid the chaotic US withdrawal, Afghan allies are having to navigate complicated logistics and an overburdened bureaucracy to get visa paperwork in ...

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• 18 August

  US reaffirms commitment to Taiwan

  

  Bloomberg The US has said it remains committed to Taiwan and other allies, pushing back at concerns about its resolve after its departure from Afghanistan led to the Taliban taking over Kabul. “We believe that our commitments to our allies and partners are sacrosanct and always have been,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during a press conference in Washington. ...

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• 18 August

  Malaysia’s PM search yields 2 frontrunners

  Bloomberg Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional alliance has chosen former deputy prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the bloc’s choice for prime minister, Ahmad Maslan, secretary general of the United Malays National Organisation said in a tweet. “Only one name as prime minister candidate was sent by UMNO/BN MPs on 17/8/21 which is Ismail Sabri, MP for Bera,” he wrote on Wednesday. ...

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• 18 August

  London’s housing market shows hit from home working in July

  

  Bloomberg London private housing rents fell in July compared with a year earlier as the ability to work from home meant that being close to city center offices was no longer a priority for workers. The 0.1% decline set the UK capital apart from other regions, where rental prices climbed by almost 2% on average, Office for National Statistics (ONS) ...

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• 18 August

  Trudeau confronts inflation as economic achilles heel at polls

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can expect mostly good news from economic data during Canada’s five-week election campaign. But there’s one potential trouble spot for him: consumer prices. A Statistics Canada report is expected to show that price inflation accelerated in July to almost the fastest rate in two decades. Economists estimate that consumer prices jumped 3.4% last month on ...

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• 18 August

  Ukraine economy falls back into recession

  Bloomberg Ukraine’s economy fell back into recession as fallout from the pandemic continued to weigh and interest rates were lifted to tackle soaring inflation. Second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) shrank a seasonally adjusted 0.8% after falling 1.2% in the previous three months, preliminary data Monday showed. On an annual basis, it ended more than a year of contraction, advancing by ...

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• 18 August

  T-Mobile says hackers steal about 7.8mn customers’ personal data

  

  Bloomberg T-Mobile US Inc said an investigation confirmed about 7.8 million current users had information stolen along with more than 40 million records from past or prospective customers who’d applied for credit in a cyberattack. The stolen information included customers’ full names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and IDs such as drivers licenses, the Bellevue, Washington-based company said in ...

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• 18 August

  Euro-area businesses stepped up hiring

  

  Bloomberg Euro-area businesses stepped up hiring during the second quarter when pandemic restrictions started to ease and the economy returned to growth. Employment increased by 0.5% in the three months through June after declining 0.2%. The economy expanded by 2% in the same period, matching an initial estimate. The region’s economic outlook has vastly improved in recent months, after a ...

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